A Straight Wife Fallen from the Sky - Chapter 45

“Look on the bright side. There isn’t much content in the junior high curriculum; your big sister here finished learning it all in two weeks,” Sang Zhancheng said, patting Sang Mujin on the shoulder.

“Besides, the Senior High School Entrance Examination isn’t a selective elimination exam, so the difficulty is much lower. These two schools have a large intake, so they aren’t that hard to get into,” Mu Jiahui added, also patting Sang Mujin’s shoulder.

It had been three days since Sang Mujin agreed to study.

She was even more prone to slacking off than Sang Zhancheng, using every means possible to escape the act of learning. Consequently, Mu Jiahui called a family meeting today with the goal of persuading Sang Mujin to turn over a new leaf.

If persuasion didn’t work… Mu Jiahui would consider tossing Sang Mujin back to her parents. Having this little creature around made it inconvenient for her to be intimate with Sang Zhancheng.

“Eldest Sister is coming over for lunch today, too. We’ll let her try to persuade you in a bit,” Sang Zhancheng said. She had already spoken with Sang Xunmo.

She knew what Sang Xunmo was doing.

If it were the old her, she might have thought that accompanying people for drinks was nothing—after all, they were Succubi; what other jobs could they find? But now, Sang Zhancheng instinctively felt that it wasn’t a good thing. The feeling of having one’s dignity crushed into the ground was not pleasant.

In fact, Sang Zhancheng had become exceptionally emotional upon hearing the news and was desperately trying to think of a solution for her sister. But she realized her sister truly had nowhere else to go. Even for manual labor like moving bricks at a construction site or sweeping the streets, they wouldn’t hire a Succubus. In the eyes of the world, Succubi were fragile and incapable of physical labor, even though their endurance was top-tier among all races.

Not to mention jobs that required academic qualifications. Even front-desk receptionist positions wouldn’t hire an unpartnered Succubus for fear they would seduce the clients.

Furthermore, Sang Xunmo truly still needed the bodily fluids of others to sustain her life.

Mu Jiahui felt uncomfortable listening to this. Injuries stemming from stereotypes and physiological traits were difficult to avoid. She could think of five different ways to help Sang Xunmo with her career, but she couldn’t conjure a partner out of thin air for her.

Sang Xunmo was also somewhat reluctant to find a partner. The pain of being betrayed was too deep; she couldn’t recover from it in such a short time. Even though she was a Succubus, she still had a heart and feelings. How could it be as simple as Yi Ming made it sound? After being together for several years, Sang Xunmo only then realized that her partner didn’t understand her at all, nor did he want to. Everything he said was based on the public’s perception of Succubi. He couldn’t see a single way in which she was different from the others.

Upon entering Sang Zhancheng’s home, Sang Xunmo tucked her sadness away. She couldn’t show her unhappiness in front of her younger sisters. Her sister still had to prepare for exams; she couldn’t affect their state of mind.

“Sister!” Sang Mujin, having successfully ditched her studies, lunged toward her.

“Why aren’t you studying?” Sang Xunmo glanced at the late-arriving Sang Zhancheng, then at Sang Mujin clinging to her. Understanding the situation, she pushed her youngest sister away.

Sang Mujin: “?”

“Sister, waah… you’ve changed, you don’t love me anymore!” Her sister actually pushed her away; she was going to cry!

By the time Mu Jiahui finished preparing the tea, she saw the three Succubi embracing and weeping together again. She was starting to get used to it. This was probably just the Succubus way of saying hello.

After lunch, Mu Jiahui herded the two little students into the study and sought out Sang Xunmo to talk privately.

“Little sister’s partner. Thank you for not leaving her.” Compared to the two parents who tried to leech off Sang Zhancheng, Sang Xunmo acted more like Sang Zhancheng’s “mother.”

“It’s only right. Once a promise is made, it shouldn’t be broken.” The two of them stood on the balcony catching the breeze. Winter was approaching, and the sky was a gloomy gray, offering nothing much to look at.

What a promise. Sang Xunmo looked at Mu Jiahui, feeling increasingly satisfied. She had been wrong a few months ago; Mu Jiahui would be a good partner.

“Have you considered doing some other kind of work?” Mu Jiahui wanted to give Sang Xunmo a hand.

Sang Xunmo was different from Fu Yaoqin. Fu Yaoqin had already sunk into her decades-long marriage; it would be very difficult for her to adapt to supporting herself with her own hands. But Sang Xunmo was different. She was still young and even possessed a fighting spirit. She only needed a little hint, a catalyst.

“I have, but what is there to do? During the day, I looked for restaurants and asked at construction sites, but none of them wanted me.” Sang Xunmo stood in the cold wind, unsure of what to do. Winter was coming soon, and even for a Succubus, it was hard to spend the night in the freezing snow.

“Is street vending allowed in this world?” Mu Jiahui had looked into it. She just hadn’t seen any stalls near the residential area, but she heard that the “Urban Management” in this world didn’t bother small vendors.

“You mean… but I’m a Succubus. Will anyone actually come?”

“Will it be that big of an influence? I think you can start by selling some homemade pastries in the neighborhood group chat. The dessert shops nearby are quite expensive, aren’t they? Or you could go to the wet market; I have acquaintances there.”

Mu Jiahui was deep in thought. If Sang Xunmo really started a stall or a shop, she might even be able to provide Mu Jiahui with connections in the future, and Mu Jiahui could use Sang Xunmo’s stall for the experiments she wanted to conduct.

“Besides, in the eyes of the world, Succubi are supposed to be good at cooking, right? That could be used as a selling point.”

“That seems to make a lot of sense,” Sang Xunmo pondered for a long time before finally replying.

Her reactions are really a bit slow. Mu Jiahui was slightly worried that she wouldn’t be able to handle the bookkeeping.

“Anyway, let’s start by promoting it in the running group I joined. You know how to make pastries, right?” Mu Jiahui opened the running group and pulled Sang Xunmo in.

“Yes, I’ll find a way to get the kitchenware. I’ve managed to save up a bit in tips.” Sang Xunmo saw a direction to move in, and her eyes sparkled with light.

“Actually, besides making pastries, you could also set up a small toy stall at school gates and things like that.” Mu Jiahui explained several more methods to Sang Xunmo.

As Sang Xunmo slowly processed the information, she became somewhat excited. It turned out she had been thinking about it all wrong; she could earn money herself. Earning hard-earned money through physical labor was better than selling her dignity—or even potentially selling her body one day. Regardless of social status, Sang Xunmo was unwilling to accompany those people, and even less willing to cater to their sick tastes—such as putting a member of the Light Race and a Succubus together to watch the Succubus’s reaction when injured.

“Um, Brother-in-law… I might need to borrow your kitchen. Is that okay?”

“That’s fine. I also have some experiments I’d like you to do. If you’re willing, you can stay here temporarily this month and move out once you’ve made some money.”

If Sang Qi heard these words, he might have fainted from Mu Jiahui’s double standards. There was no helping it; Mu Jiahui certainly wouldn’t treat a desperate girl trying to climb her way out with the same attitude she used for thick-skinned, parasitic parents.

“Thank you so much. I will work hard to save money.” Sang Xunmo bowed to Mu Jiahui.

“No need to be so polite. It’s because you have the ability. If you truly didn’t know how to do anything, there would be nothing I could do.”

Actually, Mu Jiahui had originally thought of this method for Fu Yaoqin. It wasn’t that Mu Jiahui hadn’t seen the injuries on Fu Yaoqin from when Sang Qi beat her. Combined with the fact that she had tasted Fu Yaoqin’s cooking—which was indeed better than average restaurants—there was a market for it.

But she had mentioned it once, and three days had passed without Fu Yaoqin coming to find her. Even when Sang Zhancheng secretly contacted her parents, Fu Yaoqin said nothing. Thus, Mu Jiahui didn’t want to say more.

In the end, Sang Zhancheng’s previous personality of just wanting to slack off and rely on a partner was largely thanks to Fu Yaoqin’s education. Mu Jiahui felt she was doing well enough just not shaking the water out of the woman’s head, let alone proactively helping her.

Fu Yaoqin was a Succubus who had been an adult for a long time—Mu Jiahui’s elder. Sang Xunmo was only three years older than Sang Zhancheng; if Mu Jiahui wanted to, she could view Sang Xunmo as a child. The two cases were not comparable.

Afterward, Sang Xunmo persuaded Sang Mujin for a bit longer, and Sang Mujin finally began her revision. While Mu Jiahui felt relieved, her workload more than doubled.

In the evening, after a tiring day, Sang Zhancheng lay in bed flipping through the summary of her mistakes from the day.

“Baby, it’s almost one o’clock. Not sleeping?” Mu Jiahui leaned against her and gave her a hug.

“Just a little bit more.” Sang Zhancheng only managed to squeeze out a reply to Mu Jiahui in her spare moment.

Alright. Mu Jiahui stopped pressing her. Actually, reviewing until one in the morning wasn’t that rare. Mu Jiahui felt bad for her, but she knew that to achieve good grades, a corresponding price had to be paid. She would simply stay up late with Sang Zhancheng, even if she herself was too tired to keep her eyes open.

“The first diagnostic exam is next week.” Sang Zhancheng finally put down her notebook. Mu Jiahui checked the time; it was already nearly two o’clock.

“Don’t be afraid, you’ll do well.” Mu Jiahui turned off the light and huddled together with Sang Zhancheng.

It seemed that ever since she found out what Sang Xunmo was doing, Sang Zhancheng had been reviewing even more seriously. A few days ago, she would occasionally check her phone, but now she didn’t even want to eat; Mu Jiahui had to chase her down to feed her.

“Yeah… I’m just…” Sang Zhancheng was just anxious. In the last few sets of mock exams, she always made very basic mistakes. Even excluding those issues, there were still many questions she simply couldn’t do. Her total score on the mock papers could reach 690, but if she didn’t make those basic mistakes, she could raise it to 730. Meanwhile, the minimum admission score for first-tier universities was 750. Not to mention Dongwei University, which required 900 points to enter.

Sang Zhancheng was truly anxious. They were clearly avoidable mistakes, yet on every math paper, she would miscopy questions, miscalculate numbers, or misremember formulas, as if she were cursed. She didn’t even have the time to check and correct them.

“Don’t panic. It’s only November; there are still five or six months to improve,” Mu Jiahui said, stroking Sang Zhancheng’s hair.

“Mm… Mumu, Mumu. Could you… tell me about your past?” Sang Zhancheng had wanted to ask for a long time. But Mu Jiahui had never wanted to talk about it.

Mu Jiahui said nothing. She hadn’t expected Sang Zhancheng to ask such a thing.

“There’s nothing to say. It’s all in the past,” she finally replied after a long silence.

She heard the door open; it was Sang Xunmo returning home after finishing work. Sang Zhancheng heard it too.

“So much hard work…” Her sister came home even later than she did. She really didn’t want to do that kind of work in the future.

“It will end.”

“But she still needs other people’s… fluids…” Sang Zhancheng held back a sentence: she was the same, and so was Sang Mujin. As long as they were Succubi, they couldn’t escape this trait. Why did she feel some pain? Clearly, she had been very satisfied with her identity as a Succubus before.

Mu Jiahui stroked her head. On this point, Mu Jiahui had no solution either. “Perhaps we can find her a partner.”

The air fell silent again.

“Mumu, tell me, okay? I can’t sleep.” Sang Zhancheng spoke again. She pleaded, but Mu Jiahui didn’t want to respond.

“I really want to know about Mumu’s past. I’m curious; I want to understand Mumu more. I can tell you about my past eighteen years—we can exchange, okay?”

“Once you… finish the first diagnostic exam, I’ll tell you.” Perhaps she should also face those memories she was unwilling to recall.

“Alright.”

“Sleep first.”

A week later, Sang Zhancheng stepped into the campus of No. 6 Middle School for the first time. Today, she was to participate in the first diagnostic examination of her life as a Succubus.

It was said that the rankings of the first diagnostic exam were highly similar to those of the actual College Entrance Examination. Sang Zhancheng looked left and right; as far as the eye could see, everyone was seizing every last minute to review.